


Anything Yue Can Do

by butterflydreaming (chrysalisdreams)



Series: Fusenkago: Rearranging the Flowers [3]
Category: Cardcaptor Sakura
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-18
Updated: 2013-05-18
Packaged: 2017-12-12 06:23:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,724
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/808319
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chrysalisdreams/pseuds/butterflydreaming
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An almost humorous prose songfic featuring Yue and Ruby Moon, using all the lyrics from "Anything You Can Do" (Annie Get Your Gun musical).<br/>WARNING: cross-dressing, childish behavior, &Ruby Moon’s voice.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything Yue Can Do

 

 

“Anything Yue Can Do”

 

Kaho was at her school, and Eriol had stepped out for a few minutes, leaving Spinel Sun and Ruby Moon alone and unsupervised with their visitor from Tomoeda.Yue, and Eriol’s Sun Guardian, were each settled into comfortable spots in the solarium, Spinel reclined on the Victorian couch and Yue in an armchair with his knees tucked up, both of them focused on their respective books, when Ruby Moon popped into the room.“Ugh,” she complained while rolling her eyes.“I can’t believe how _boring_ both of you are.Don’t you ever want to do anything else?”Her hands came up to her hips at the complete lack of reaction to her words.Ruby Moon wasn’t going to let them ignore her, so she sauntered up to the easier target; with a serpentine stretch, she spilled herself over the padded armrest and back of the chair that Yue was in.“Maybe the reason you never _do_ anything,” she purred, “is because, as the _older model_ , you’re tired and worn out.Obsolete, even,” she added with an acid smile.

A frown wrinkle between Yue’s eyebrows creased slightly.

Ruby’s smile broadened.“You know, Yue…” she mused.“Anything you can do, I can do better.”She leaned into his ear and whispered, “I can do anything better than you.”She waited for a response, but Sakura’s Moon Guardian stayed unmoving, his eyes locked on the page in front of him.Ruby, tossing her hair, jumped up with a pout on her brightly painted lips and went to sulk at a window.

A few moments later, a soft voice muttered, “No, you can't.”

“Yes, I can,” Ruby Moon snapped back.

Yue only moved his lashes slightly, casting a narrow look Ruby’s way.“No, you can't.”

Spinel flipped a page, and carefully warned, “I suggest that you don’t get drawn in, Yue.”

Ruby Moon turned gleefully and almost danced her way back to her opponent’s chair, where she bracketed Yue into his seat with a hand on each of the chair’s arms.“ _Yes, I can_. ”

“No,” Yue contradicted.He unfolded his legs, placing his bare feet onto the floor.He closed his book, and raised an eyebrow at Ruby Moon’s unflinching proximity.“You can't,” he said.

“Yes.I.Can.” insisted Eriol’s Moon Guardian in a sibilant whisper.Yue sighed, rustling his wings.Ruby Moon giggled.

“I warned you,” murmured Spinel Sun.

“Yes, I can!” said Ruby Moon yet again.“I’ve already defeated you once.Anything you can be, I can be greater.I have waaay more power than you do.Sooner or later, you’re going to have to accept it.”She stood up straight, and continued, “Suppi,” she pointed, “is greater than Kero, and _I'm_ greater than _you_.”

Yue glared at his opposite number.“You might like to think so, but no, you're not,” he said in cold tones.He began to say more, but Ruby cut off his speech.

“Yes, I am.”

“ _No, you're not ,_” reiterated Yue.“If we were to –”

Ruby Moon interrupted again, aggravatingly.“Yes, I am!”

Yue’s eyes opened widely.“No, you're NOT!” he retorted in a loud voice.Then, embarrassed at his outburst, he quickly regained his composure.He stood up and pushed past Ruby Moon to leave the room.After passing through the doorway, he headed toward the open spaces of the rose garden.

Ruby Moon followed after, skipping.“Yes I am.Yes, I am!” she sing-songed lightly.She left Spinel with a parting wink.She caught up to Yue where he stood, with crossed arms, in between the rows of roses.“Aw, come on _Oniichan_ ,” she said patronizingly.“Don’t go off in a huff like that.”

“If we were to compete fairly,” said Yue with measured patience, “I believe that we would be..” he glanced back at Ruby Moon, who was blissfully sniffing at a half-blown flower.He turned completely, and relaxed his arms, if not his posture.“…of equal ability,” he finished.

Ruby Moon slid her eyes to him without straightening up.“Compete?” she asked slyly.“There’s a sharp-shooting competition on Saturday; I saw it on the telly.I bet I can shoot down a partridge with a single bullet – or shell or cartridge, whatever that’s called.If I wanted to kill one, that is.They’re really cute though, did you know?Have you ever seen one?”

“Do you like birds?” asked Yue measuringly.“I can get a sparrow to eat from my hand,” he said, as if revealing a secret, with a shade of smugness.

“I’d like to see that,” said Ruby.

Yue put a finger to his lips for silence, then gestured for Ruby Moon to stay in place while he walked over to the quince tree, where small birds were twittering.On the way, he detoured to the birdfeeder, where he shook out a teaspoon-sized hill of millet; he lifted out his hand and stood quietly by the quince with the grain in his palm.In less than a minute, the little birds were watching him from the branches.Shortly after, one brave sparrow flitted onto Yue’s fingers, snatched a beakful of seed, and darted off again.

“How very _Snow White_ ,” observed Ruby Moon loudly.Her voice and approach frightened the sparrows out of the tree and into flight over the garden wall.With sudden speed, she formed a bow and arrow of light and tracked the escaping birds as they flew away, but she never let the arrow fly to a target.Instead, she turned her weapon, and with a brief pause on Yue, redirected its aim to the apple tree.A breath after the bowstring sprung back into a tense straight line, a ripe apple fell to the grass with the arrow’s burn mark in its golden skin.“No one ever picks them,” stated the butterfly-winged Guardian.

Yue almost smiled.“Only the ripe ones,” he challenged.He drew his own light-bow and took down two slightly-wrinkled fruit with one shot.They tumbled across the green like guillotined heads.

Bright-eyed, Ruby Moon tossed back her vibrant hair.Three shafts flew in succession from her bow.

The apples fell in quickly.Their thumps sounded like a heavy rainfall, and soon the foot of the apple tree was thick with ripe and overripe Braeburns.

 

. . .

 

Eriol held the front door for Kaho, and helped her out of her coat once they were both inside.“But we have nothing but bread and cheese,” the red head explained.“The cupboards are empty of everything but a few cans of peas and an open packet of digestives.”

“I can live on bread and cheese,” placated Eriol.“There’s no need for you to go back out again to get preparations for dinner.”Kaho dropped a warm kiss onto his cheek and headed upstairs to freshen herself.Taking off his own coat, Eriol peeked into the solarium.“If I’m hearing correctly,” he said to Spinel, “Ruby Moon and Yue are keeping each other company outside?”

“Yes,” answered Spinel dryly.“I believe that they have found something on which they both agree.”

“Really?” asked a pleased Eriol.

“That someone else should pick up the apples that they’ve shot down,” finished Spinel.

“And only on that?” queried Eriol.

“Yes.”

The young man sighed with a smile.“Well,” he said.“It’s a start.”Curiously, he headed out to the rear of his house, where the pair of Moon Guardians were still squaring off verbally.

“I have perfect night-vision,” Ruby Moon was saying as Eriol stepped out onto the brick pathway.“I can see perfectly with no light and no moon,” she declared.

“So can a rat,” answered Yue sarcastically.“And I think it goes without saying that I also have perfect vision.”

“Hmm. Tsukishiro wears glasses,” Ruby countered.“And I heard that’s not just for the look.”

Yue was taken aback.“From whom!Keroberos wouldn’t have said anything --”As Ruby began to snicker, Yue stopped himself.Flushing around his ears, he changed the subject.“I have heard that you can’t sing,” he accused.

Ruby rolled her eyes.“Don’t listen to Suppi.He has no taste,” she complained.

“I heard you,” said Yue, “when you were bathing.I don’t think you should attempt Mariah Carey songs.”

Her mouth drew open.“Hey!”Hands on hips again, she scowled.“Any note _you_ can reach I can go higher.I can sing anything higher than you. ”

Posed challengingly, Yue leaned forward against the patio chair that was a barricade between himself and his adversary.“No, you can't.I think you would be surprized.”

“Yes, I can,” snorted Ruby Moon in disbelief.She opened her mouth and cast out a note.

Yue stifled something that looked suspiciously like a smile.“No, you can't,” he contradicted, then sang out a note just higher.

“Yes, I can,” returned Ruby Moon with determination.With a deep breath, she sang out a high G.

Yue hit the A.“No, you can't,” he stated afterward.

The _Yes, I can/ No you can’t/ Yes I can/ No, you can’t_ continued with escalating notes until Ruby Moon was almost screeching and Yue was singing in a full falsetto.Dogs in their yards on the block began to bark, and Eriol, who had been unobtrusively watching, burst out in loud laughter.The two Guardians turned to see their audience, Yue dismayed and Ruby already smiling.With a great inhalation, she sang out “Yes, I CAN!” in an spiraling note that caused the neighbor’s garage door to open spontaneously.  
  


. . .

 

Spinel, Kaho, and Eriol watched with differing levels of amusement as the one-upsmanship continued.Ruby changed for dinner and put together a tasty macaroni soufflé and salad of baby greens, and afterward was showing off a new outfit to Kaho.“I found everything at thrift stores and secondhand shops,” she stated proudly.“This sweater is actually Chanel.”She peeled the layer and showed off the designer label.“Aren’t I a clever shopper?”

“I managed our household,” goaded Yue, strolling through the room as if he had no interest in Nakuru’s fashion show, “for over a century.”

Nakuru jumped to the bait.“Anything you can buy I can buy cheaper.I can buy anything cheaper than you.”She turned in place, flaring out her short skirt.“Guess what I paid for this skirt.And the sweater.And these cute shoes!”

“Three dollars and fifty cents?Six dollars and forty cents?Twelve dollars and thirty cents? ”

“Pounds, Yue,” hinted Kaho.

“Everything for –” Nakuru did the conversion in her head, pausing, “—eighteen dollars and twenty cents!” she declared.

Yue continued strolling from the living room.“I can tell,” he mocked as he left.

“No, you can't!” hissed Nakuru.In a fit of fury, she picked up a fashion magazine and threw it after Yue, just missing his head.

 

. . .

 

“Yes, I can; yes, I can!” the household heard, late into the night.

“WILL YOU PLEASE SHUT IT!” yelled Spinel in exasperation.

 

. . .

“Anything you can say I can say softer. I can say anything softer than you,” whispered Ruby Moon as she crept behind Yue down the hallway.

“No, you can't,” whispered Yue back, over his shoulder.

“I’ll bet you can’t stay up later than me,” said Ruby Moon in a hushed voice.

“Yes, I can,” quietly retorted Yue.“I can stay awake for several days.”

“Liar,” accused Ruby Moon.“No, you can't.”

“Yes, I can,”  grumbled Yue.

“No, you can't.You sleep whenever you’re in your false form.”

“You can’t count that,” said Yue.

“Yes, I can, you cheater!”   
“I know one thing you cannot do,” said Yue with annoyance showing.

“What?” whispered Ruby Moon, her eyes narrowed with suspicion.

“You can’t leave me alone,” answered Yue meanly.

Ruby Moon looked stricken.She bared her teeth.“YES, I CAN!” she shouted, then ran down the hallway to her room and slammed the door.

 

. . .

 

“I can drink my liquor faster,” Nakuru declared.She watched Yue raise his beer glass.His response to her statement was little more than a flicker of his eyes in her direction.He sipped the amber brew complacently.Yue’s new tactic was to ignore that she was even present, let alone talking, and it was driving Nakuru to desperation.“I can drink it quicker,” she repeated.She plucked the glass from Yue’s hand and quaffed the lager in three heavy swallows.After a moment, her face took on a green shadow, and she ran to the hedges.

“And get even sicker,”sighed Eriol.  
  
. . .

 

Not only had they been forced to go out and spend time together, but now Nakuru and Yukito were unable to get back into the house.The front door was locked, Nakuru couldn’t find her key, and Spinel wasn’t answering her repeated rings of the doorbell.“Do you have a hair pin?” Yukito asked politely.

“Why?”

“Yue says that he can pick the lock.”

“Well let’s see it, then,” huffed the girl.

The wings appeared, wrapping around Yukito and then opening again to reveal Yue, and then again disappeared as Yue “put them away”.He took a flowered French clip from Nakuru, pulled out a piece of metal, and bent down to the door knob.“I can open any lock or safe, ” boasted Yue softly, “without lockpick tools.”

“And without bein' caught?” Nakuru questioned.

Yue’s answer came distractedly.“Sure.”With a click, the door swung open.Yue handed back the twisted piece of metal.

Nakuru stepped briskly into the house.“That's what I thought, you crook!” she hissed, then closed the door again before Yue could follow her through.

 

. . .

 

Yue was trying to remember a particular Grieg piece on the piano.He checked the sheet music, noted the fermata, and began the line again.Ruby Moon put her arm under the piano’s lid and caught the hammer before it could touch the strings.“Any note you can hold, I can hold longer,” she said.

“Vocally?” asked an exasperated Yue with sarcastic notes in his voice.

“Duh,” answered Ruby Moon.“I can hold any note longer than you.”

There was no other answer.“No, you can't.”

“Yes, I can.”

“No, you can't.”

“Yes, I can.”

“No, you can't,”  Yue said, teeth grinding.

“Yes, I can, ” said Ruby with gleeful mania.She opened her mouth and inhaled deeply.“Yes, I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I-I –” she began.

Yue’s countermeasure was immediate.“No, you C-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-A-N'T”His mouth closed on the _nt_.There was no way to hold the _t_ .

“\--CA-A-A-A-N!”continued the butterfly-winged creature.

Yue gave up.“Yes, you can,” he yielded, hoping that she would go away.Inexhaustably, Ruby Moon continued.

From the adjoining room, Spinel’s voice called out in misery, “ _Will the singing_ never _stop?!?_ ”

 

. . .

 

Perhaps Eriol should not have taken Spinel with him, thus leaving the two competing Moon Guardians alone in the house.Then again, since he left Nakuru in her Nakuru form, perhaps he did know what he was doing. A full-scale battle between Ruby Moon and Yue might have leveled the entire residential block.

Their behavior had degenerated to sitting at opposite corners of the room, watching each other like rival vultures who were waiting for something to die.“Why do you even dress that way?” Yue asked snidely.

“We aren’t _human_ , so what does it _matter_ ,” was Nakuru’s annoyed answer.

“I wasn’t referring to your wearing of skirts, in general,” said Yue.“I was referring to _that_ skirt in particular. You don’t have the legs for a mini-skirt.”

“You say,” huffed Nakuru.

Yue considered with a slight toss-back of his long hair.“Anything you can wear I can wear better,” he mused.

Nakuru scoffed.“In what _you_ wear _I'd_ look better than you.”

“In my coat?”  laughed Yue, sitting up.

“In your vest!” exclaimed Nakuru.

“You don’t have the legs for those shoes, either,” remarked the feather-winged Yue.

“You want to try walking in my shoes?” asked Nakuru incredulously.“You go barefoot all the time.You couldn’t handle these heels!”

“And I’d look better in your hat,” Yue drawled.

“Why don’t you put on my clothes and see!” shouted Nakuru.

“Make me!” Yue shouted back.

“I can make you!”

“No, you can't!” 

“Yes, I can!”  yelled Nakuru, leaping onto the other Moon Guardian and pulling her furry, purple, crocheted hat over Yue’s ears.“Yes, I CAN!” she insisted while she wrestled him for his shawl.

 

 

Yue drew the line at lipstick, but Nakuru had to admit that he looked pretty fetching in her peacock blue, sleeveless babydoll dress with silk daisies pinning up some of his hair.The vinyl stiletto boots were not a working option, however, and Yue gave up trying to stand in them, let alone walk, and remained in a heap where he fell.He made choking noises, a sort of stifled giggling, and there was a mad glint to the blue of his eyes.Nakuru, by Yue’s adamant demand, had washed off all of her make-up.

She was wearing all of Yue’s outer clothing.She looked quite smart, although the coloring didn’t really suit her.

She tried to get Yue to compete with her for how many marshmallows she could fit into her mouth, but he would not take the challenge.How long each could hold his or her breath was a moot point for both of them, since neither was _required_ to breath.“ Anything you say I can say faster,” she goaded.

“I can say anything faster than you,” answered back Yue.

Nakuru finished buffing the nails on one hand and picked up the other.Yue squirmed as the orangewood stick pushed back his cuticles.Nakuru paused.“Noyoucan't,” she said, quickly.

“YesIcan.”It was difficult to tell if Yue was any faster.

“Noyoucant.”

“Yessaican.”

The words slurred together and over each other. 

“Noy’cnt!” 

“Yess’c’n!”

They stared at each other.“Are you going to finish my manicure or aren’t you?” asked Yue.

 

“I can ride,” revealed Yue while Nakuru filed and buffed his toenails.“I can jump a horse over a hurdle.I can do trick riding, too,” he added.On the floor of Nakuru’s bedroom, he lay on his back, freshly manicured hands resting on his stomach.Nakuru had found him an androgynous pair of shorts and a T-shirt didn’t have a Care Bear, Power Puff Girl, or the word “princess” in glitter on it.

“Horses scare me,” said Nakuru.“Too big.”She touched her face to see if her facial was dry enough to rinse off, and then compared it to the green kaolin mud that coated Yue’s face.“I can wear pantyhose.I can wear a girdle.I can wear a _corset_ , if I have to.”She rung out a steamy towel and started wiping away her facial.“I can sew my own clothes.I made that hat.”She pointed at the purple one.

“I can knit a sweater.”

“But I can fill it better!” countered Nakuru, sticking out her chest.

Yue lifted himself from the scattered throw pillows and eyed her slight build with raised eyebrows.Her terry-cloth robe hid any possibility of curves.

“I hate that you act like you’re Mr. Perfect,” she scowled.She scrubbed at his face with a little too much force.

“After living for… a lot longer than you,” Yue started, “I can do most anything.It’s just a matter of time and experience.”

“Can you bake a pie?”

“No.”

“Neither can I. I can’t get the pie crust right.Pie crust isn’t about experience.It’s about talent, and… I don’t know – love.”

“You have me on that,” replied Yue.

Nakuru started to sing, and Yue was startled at how sad and sweet her voice sounded with the mournful tune. “ _Love, look away,_ ” she sang, “ _love, look away from me.No good am I for you.No good are you… for me…_ ”.

“That was very pretty,” he said.

“Anything you can sing,” Nakuru said with a gentle smile, “I can sing sweeter.I can sing anything sweeter than you.”

The rivalry in Yue’s answering contradiction was friendly.“No, you can't.”He sat up completely and tucked his knees beneath him.

Nakuru grinned.“Yes, I can,” she stated while standing up.“ _Baby cried the day the circus came to town,_ ” she sang in a mellifluous voice, “ _cuz she didn’t want parades just passing by her…_ ”.

“No, you can't.” Yue took a deep, slow breath.“ _Don’t know why… there’re clouds up in the sky.Stormy weather… since my –_ ” he stopped suddenly, looking sad and regretful.

“Yes I can,” said Nakuru quickly.“ _All through the night I'll be standing over you, all through the night I'll be watching over you…_ ” she sang, leaning down slightly toward Yue with her hands resting on her hips.

“I think I’ll wash the rest of this off of my face,” said Yue, getting onto his feet, indicating the remnants of facial, “and get dressed.”

“No!You can't!” yelped Nakuru, cutting off her song.She grabbed onto Yue’s arm.“You can’t!You’ll just turn back into stick-in-the-mud Yue again!”Her fingernails dug into his skin desperately.“We’ve been having fun!Haven’t we!If you put on those clothes again,” she predicted emphatically, pointing to Yue’s usual suit, which was draped over a chair, “you’re going to go back to your same boring self!And you can’t do that!”

Yue pried her grip from his arm, his expression grim.“Yes, I can,” he answered with shadowed eyes.He picked up his clothing on the way to the restroom.

Nakuru chased after him and kicked at the closed door.“No,” she howled, “you can't, you can't, you can't!”Her unadorned face twisted into a grimace as she started to cry.“You can’t,” she screamed.“You have to be my Oniichan,” she sobbed.“Otherwise you’ll go home and I’ll become invisible again!”She gave the door another angry kick before fleeing back into her room and throwing herself onto her bed.

After a few minutes, Yue came in and stood by her bed.“There is no way you can ever be invisible,” he said.

“Yes, I can,” sniffled Nakuru.“I can.I can.”She sat up.“Yes, I can.I am,” she said.

Yue looked at Nakuru.He sighed.“I am not leaving, yet,” he said.

Nakuru blinked off a few tears and speculatively eyed Yue.“When Eriol and Kaho and Suppi get back,” she said with a crocodile smile, “I’m going to tell them how you looked in my dress.”

Aghast, Yue took a step back, exclaiming, “No… you CAN’T!”

 

. . .(and that’s enough of that). . .

**Author's Note:**

> Additional songs:  
> "Don't Cry Out Loud" - Melissa Manchester  
> "Stormy Weather" - Billie Holiday  
> "Angel Standing By" - Jewel


End file.
